Ranma three and a half eyes
by Brendan
Summary: A Demon attack signals a dramatic change Nerima as Ranma's secret heritage is revealed
1. Chapter 1

Legal: The characters of Ranma ½ were created by the great Rumiko Takahashi.  
I am using them without permission, hopefully for the purpose of entertaining someone. If anyone who has a right to sue me has that desire, I have almost no money.  
C&C is appreciated, you can contact me at brendan@wiltonnewyork.com. And if you want to see the earlier parts of this and my other stories, you can find them at http://www.wiltonnewyork.com/Brendan  
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Ranma three and a half eyes  
Chapter 1  
by Brendan O'Donnell  
  
  
It was two minuets to midnight. In the greenhouse of the Kuno estate a figure was working diligently. That part of the greenhouse was unlit except for the candles, five black candles lit at each point of a pentagram, and a large red candle lit at the center. The figure spoke, her voice chanting a strange chant in a language that resembled Latin. Her chant continued and rose in volume.  
As Midnight arrived the chant reached a crescendo and the flame of the red candle turned bright blue. From this blue flame rose a could of black smoke that filled the center of the mystic circle. Two eyes suddenly formed in the cloud and a voice issued from the mists. "For what propose am I summoned?"  
"I call you to forth to end a single mortal life." It's summoner replied calmly.  
  
Ranma was walking down the street trying not to look to his right. Walking where Ranma wasn't looking was Akane. Who was also avoiding his gaze. They were both nervous.  
"We're just doing this for my father, you know." Akane commented.  
"I know, it's not really a date, we're just seeing a movie together because it's your father's birthday and you want him to be happy." Ranma replied. He added in a quieter tone "As if I'd ever ask a tomboy like you on a real date."  
"Ranma!" Akane shouted, turning to glare at him. She closed her eyes then said through gritted teeth "I'm trying to stay civil with you so keep your mouth shut and don't act like your usual hentai self."  
"What's that supposed to mean!?" Ranma pivoted and stared right into Akane's glare. *Back in familiar territory.* Ranma and Akane both thought to themselves with feelings of relief mixed with disappointment. Not that either one would admit it to anyone, including themselves.  
"Nihau Ranma!" Came a voice from behind the pair. They turned to see Shampoo brake her bike and squeal to a stop one-inch from the pair. She grabbed Ranma and said, "Have day off, we go on date yes?"  
"Ranma!" Akane said angrily.  
"What Akane do here?" Shampoo said looking at the youngest Tendo Daughter.  
"Uh, well it's her father's birthday and we're pretending to be going out as a kinda present. It's not a date or nothing..." Ranma said as he pulled himself free of Shampoo's arms. He trailed off as his well-trained sense of danger triggered. He glanced up a moment then grabbed both Akane and Shampoo and jumped to the left.  
"RANMA!" Akane yelled, a second before a large object smashed into the ground where they just stood with explosive force.  
The three Martial artists looked as the dust cleared revealing a large being. It rose from it's crouched over position and turned to look at the trio. It was almost seven feet tall with deep red scaly skin mostly covered by very black armor. Lashing it's tail against the ground it growled. "Good dodge, but it doesn't change the fact that you shall die today."  
Ranma stepped foreword. "All right who are you and why are you after me."  
"You couldn't pronounce my name anyway. As for why, I was asked to kill you and obeying that kind of request is both duty and pleasure." The demon stepped forward, folding it's wings against it's back. It raised it's right hand, which crackled with black fire. "Goodbye."  
Ranma pushed the girls to opposite sides as he charged foreword, dodging the stream of fire, which ignited the pavement where they had stood a moment earlier. As Ranma approached the demon it lashed out against him with the claws on it's left hand. Ranma ducked under the attack and slammed a fist into his opponents stomach with enough force to split a redwood in half. The demon grunted and quivered slightly under the blow, lashing out with a claw strike that Ranma jumped just out of range of.  
As the demons claws missed their target, it had also extended it's corresponding wing. This appendage struck Ranma squarely, knocking him to the ground.  
The demon jumped foreword it's clawed feet extended, then with a strong wingbeat pushed itself back, away from Shampoo who had stepped over Ranma, sword extended so that the demon could impale himself. The demon frowned, then pivoted aside from Shampoo and Ranma's rising form as Akane jumped in, her kick cracking the ground where it had stood.  
"Do you mind?" The demon's tail suddenly lashed out, impaling Akane in her lower left chest. Before she could do more that gasp, the tail suddenly moved, throwing her against the fence of the canal. "Now die quietly..."  
"AHHHRRR!!" Ranma screamed as he leaped at the demon, his battle aura surging like a storm. The demon moved its claws to block to block the rush, and found itself staggering to the side as Ranma avoided the move and rammed 150 hard punches into it's left side. As the demon staggered back, Ranma paused, just long enough to focus the rage that had inundated his mind into his hands. A fierce light, bright red mixed with blue formed around Ranma's hands for a second before he closed the distance with his opponent. Lashing out with all his strength, Ranma's double fisted punch impacted with the demon's face and upper chest. It was thrown backward by the blow, shattering the wall opposite the fence.  
Ranma could barely think of anything but catching the monster, and destroying it as thoroughly as he could, when he heard a soft cough from the edge of the canal. His rage dissipated like a tear in the ocean. "Akane!" He called as he rushed to her side.  
Shampoo shook her head, pushing aside the shock she felt at seeing her Rival so casually impaled and Ranma's rage filled response. *Unforgivable Shampoo! You are a warrior, if you hesitate like that it could cost you your life!* She ran forward, slowing to a slow walk a few feet from the collapsed wall. The rubble shifted and the demon pulled itself to it's feet. There was a trickle of blood oozing from it's lips and it's upper chest was slightly discolored from Ranma's last attack, but it seemed more enraged than hurt. Shampoo heard Ranma scream Akane's name, and ignored the surge of pain in her heart. *Ranma distracted, I must hold back this monster until he's ready to fight.* She thought as she shifted her grip on her sword.  
Ranma dropped to his knees in the pool of blood forming around Akane. *So Much Blood...* "NO!" He tore off his shirt and started trying to pack the wound, to do anything that would stop the bleeding.  
The Demon purposefully stepped toward Ranma, stopping as it saw Shampoo step into it's path, sword pointed right at it.  
Akane looked up at him. "Ranma." She said quietly, her voice distorted by the blood in her throat.  
"Step aside and live." The demon stated, raising it's right hand and forming a sphere of black fire over it's palm to emphasize the point. Shampoo responded by thrusting her left arm foreword, throwing three small knives at the demon's extended hand. The demon knocked the blades out of the air with it's left hand, then lifted it's right and grasped the ball of fire. The flames surged outward, assuming the shape of a large sword, then fading to reveal a real sword.  
"Don't try to talk. Save your strength, we'll talk after I get you to a hospital." There was a strong constant ache in his forehead, Ranma ignored it. *Damn it what do I do!* He knew about injury. In his mind he reviewed every option he could think of to get her someplace she could be treated. As each possibility passed through his mind, he realized the action would be to slow, that it would jostle her wound to much, that nothing he thought of could get Akane to help before she died.  
Shampoo was putting all her speed and strength into parrying the demon's ferocious attack. She jumped back from a low slash and extended her sword. The demon's black blade had left her own blade badly knicked and chipped.  
Akane winced as she lifted her left arm. "I'm sorry, Ranma. I want you to know I love..." Her arm dropped, and she closed her eyes.  
"Akane..." Ranma said, leaning forward and looking into her face. A drop of blood fell onto her cheek, from the red horizontal line that had appeared in his forehead. Akane's breathing was becoming shallower. "No." Another drop of blood fell. "No!" Ranma had to wince at the searing pain in the front of his head. "NO!" he screamed to the heavens. The line of blood in his forehead split, revealing the eye beneath.  
Shampoo took another step backward, and just barely kept herself from turning as a bright light exploded behind her. In front of her the demon dropped it's guard while it openly gaped. Not wasting the opportunity Shampoo spun foreword swinging her sword in a great circular arc. The sword shattered on the demon's chest, leaving a raged line of black blood. Continuing the circle of her attack, Shampoo raised her leg into a roundhouse kick into the demon's stomach, throwing it back to the broken wall. Unable to contain her curiosity any longer she turned to look at Ranma.  
Ranma didn't know what had happened; his body suddenly felt as though it was filled with power. A wave of euphoria swept across him, and was shattered by the reality he saw before him. Akane was lying on the ground, and he could see her life flowing through her, could see it dimming as she died. Ranma knew he had to save her. And a means to save her formed in his head. Not questioning its source Ranma leaned forward and put his effort into the task.  
Light exploded around Ranma. Then the light became concentrated, focused into a beam from his third eye to Akane's chest. A glowing sphere emerged from her and traveled up the beam to be absorbed by the eye. The eye closed, the light was gone.  
Shampoo watched as the light surrounding Ranma concentrated into a beam from his head to Akane's chest. She saw the sphere of light float up the beam to where Ranma's body obscured her view. Then the beam faded. Ranma sat still for a second. Then he surged up and pivoted to face her. There was something changed about his face but she couldn't clearly see what it was. He raised his arms, his hands clenched into tight fists. Then he suddenly extended the first and last finger of each hand and an aura of blue fire formed around them.  
With a fierce cry Ranma thrust his hands foreword and the fire exploded from his hands and surged right at her like a wave. Shampoo raised her arms in a semi instinctive attempt at defense, then blinked in shock as the fire passed through her like she hadn't existed. Her contemplation was cut short by the scream from behind her. Pivoting Shampoo saw the demon burning with the same flames that had passed through her harmlessly. A second later it began to crumble into a pile of dust.  
  
Genma Saotome was running along the canal. Looking up he saw a pillar of blue flame form and dissipate a few blocks ahead of him. He accelerated. *What is happening?* He had been trying to con a vendor out of some rice cakes when he had suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of impending doom. It was a sensation he had not felt in years, but he had known it was real and that his son was it's focus. "RANMA!!"  
Genma ran foreword. On his left he saw Shampoo standing before a shattered section of wall She was staring at the two forms lying by the fence. "Oh, my son!" he cried as he ran up to Ranma. Kneeling beside him he flipped him onto his back and checked his neck's pulse. Then he looked at Akane. "What happened..." He paused looking down at the pool of blood that he was standing at the fringes of.. He blinked a moment, then he looked closer, and his eyes widened. The blood was flowing back into Akane's wound. Turning to Akane, he reached out to brush the hair away from her forehead. "Oh Nodoka." He whispered. Then he reached down, swung Akane over his left shoulder, Ranma over his right, and stood.  
"Ayah!" Shampoo had managed to overcome her shock enough to walk to where Genma stood. His sudden decision to manhandle both Ranma and her rival fiancée Akane took her by complete surprise.  
Genma looked her in the eye. Shampoo had never seen this expression on him before. It was a combination of fear, sorrow, and relief. "Akane's not in any danger. I'll explain it to her and Ranma back at the Dojo once they wake up." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I'll definitely have to explain things to everyone... Shampoo," He hesitated for a moment. "Something significant just happened to Ranma. And I'd rather explain it to everyone at once so please get Ukyo and ask her to come to the Dojo."  
Genma turned, and started down the street at a run.  
  
Ranma groaned slightly, and blinked as he awoke. He recognized that he was lying in his and his father's room. He remembered what had happened just before he fell asleep. "Akane!" he cried as he bolted to his feet. Looking to his side he saw Akane lying on a futon a few feet away from him. She was wearing the dress, however he could see through the rip the unmarked skin underneath. Reddening slightly, Ranma looked away from her chest, and looked at the familiar contours of her face. He had seen Akane in many moods, and even sleeping like now, he knew her face perfectly. There was something different about it. On her forehead there was a Chinese character.  
"Ranma," said a woman's voice from the doorway of the room. Ranma hadn't heard the voice very often, but he knew it very well. His mother's voice.  
He looked down at himself and saw that he was male. Expanding his observation he saw his mother was looking directly at him, and there was no way he could run or change.  
"Don't worry Ranma," his mother said as she walked across the room to him. "I'm not here about Jusenkyo, or the promise of Seppuku you've feared so much."  
"Mom?" was Ranmas quiet response as he turned to her. He could see a smile on her face and tears in her eyes.  
Nodoka responded by grabbing him into a fierce hug, whispering, "I missed you so much."  
"Oh Mom." Ranma grabbed her, hugging as fiercely as he could without squeezing harder than he knew she could take. For a minute the hug was all that mattered to either of them.  
Nodoka separated them and brushed the tears from her eyes. "Now, let me look at you," she said as she observed him carefully. "I see you do take after me. In ways I had not wanted," she said with a sigh.  
Ranma suddenly recalled the strange feelings and vision that had overtaken him when he saw Akane dying from the demon's attack. He was about to ask Nodoka if she somehow meant this, when he heard Akane moan. Spinning and kneeling beside her, he quietly said, "Akane," as he watched her wake up.  
"Uh," Akane stated, opening her eyes, and looking around. She stopped when she saw Ranma and said quietly "Ranma..." Then she blinked in memory. She glanced down at the bloodstained dress, and putting her hand into the hole formed by the demons attack she felt the undamaged skin. "How?"  
"I can answer that," Nodoka stated quietly from the door. Ranma and Akane both looked at her, her joy at being reunited with her son was being overcome by some unknown Sorrow. "Mom?" Ranma said quietly.  
"Mrs. Saotome?" Akane added, sitting up.  
"Come on, I think I'd rather explain this to everyone," she said as she turned and walked out the door.  
Ranma looked after her, then looked back at Akane.  
Akane looked at Ranma, looked down at her dress, and said "I, uh, I think I ought to change into something else."  
Ranma glanced down at his own outfit, then said. "Yeah, me too."  
  
Ranma walked down the stairs with Akane right behind him. Akane was wearing her yellow dress with a floral pattern, Ranma his red shirt and black pants. They both paused as they overlooked the family room. Nodoka, Genma, the rest of the Tendo family and Shampoo and Ukyo were all gathered around the table. Everyone turned their head to look at Ranma and Akane.  
No one said anything.  
Nodoka indicated that the two of them sit at a open space to her left.  
"Ranma, there is so much to tell you. So much you need to know..." Nodoka trailed off looking down at the table.  
"I think it would be best if I tell him how we met," Genma said to her.  
Genma turned to Ranma and began. "I met Nodoka in the year 1895. I was at that time only a few years older than you are now." He looked at the incredulous looks from around the table. "It may be hard to believe but at the time she wasn't human."  
Nodoka looked up and started talking. "My people were known as the Sanjiyan Unkara, or sometimes as the Triclops. When we existed, at least. For a very long time we sought to end our immortality and attain humanity. To the best of my knowledge I was the last to find a way to become human."  
Nabiki looked at her and said in a skeptical voice, "So you were Immortal, and you wanted to give it up?"  
Nodoka sighed and looked at the table. "You can only see our longevity, our power. You don't know the terrible prices they require, or the gifts of humanity that you know too well to see."  
"This is all very interesting," Nabiki commented. "But according to Shampoo, my little sister just got almost killed by some demon and now she's in perfect shape. How do you explain that?"  
"If you listen to the rest of our story it will all make sense," Genma responded. "To shorten the tale; I met Nodoka on the road, and agreed to show her the way to Kyoto. However on the way there , there was an... accident."  
"An inn was on fire, and Genma was severely injured trying to save the people inside. I had only known him a short time, but I knew that I couldn't allow him to die. So I used one of the most basic and potent powers of the Sanjiyan and made him my WU." Pausing, Nodoka took a sip from the cup of tea Kasumi had given her just before Ranma and Akane had arrived. She continued, "The Sanjiyan posses great magic power. However, when we use that power to its utmost, it weakens us, often leaving us powerless for days at a time. So, long ago, even by immortal standards, we learned how to take the soul of another and merge it with our own. The one whose soul we have taken becomes our WU, our... protector and servant. As the soul is kept safe within our own, the WU's body becomes immune from harm, all injuries heal at fantastic speed, and they share our own longevity, and a portion of our power." Nodoka stopped and looked at her tea.  
Genma resumed the narrative, "For a very long time I traveled with Nodoka, helping her search for a way to become human. And eventually we found the Nyanichuan."  
Ranma blinked. He looked at his father with a disbelieving expression. "YOU KNEW?!"  
"We knew, Ranma," Nodoka responded. "You see, the Nyanichuan was the critical catalyst in the spell which made me human, and within a few hours the character marking your father my WU faded forever. We traveled apart for a few years, I wanted to get a feel of humanity, your father met Happosei and Soun, and decided to relearn fighting without the power he had gained from me. After disposing of Happosei, we met again, he proposed and I accepted." She smiled at the memory. "We bought a house with the savings of centuries, and just over a year later, I had you." She looked at Ranma her eyes glistening, and a smile on her face. Then the smile faltered.  
"However even from the beginning, I wondered if my Sanjiyan nature was gone or merely suppressed. I was uncertain whether or not you might have inherited my former nature. Then when you were five I knew. You were at the playground, and a group of bullies was picking on you. You had enough training to handle any one of them, but they were threatening you all at once. When I was coming to help you, I saw you're forehead begin to spontaneously bleed, here," Nodoka said extending her finger and tracing a short line in the center of Ranma's forehead.  
"Here you were in a situation where a young Sanjiyan would have tried to call forth his power, and there was blood where you're third eye would have opened. That was when I knew you had inherited my former nature from me." Nodoka looked down, her eyes glistening, her hands clenched.  
Genma glanced at his wife, then started talking, "Anyway, Nodoka didn't know what to do. Remember it hadn't been that long ago when she gave up the power of the Sanjiyan forever. Now she discovered that the power she had spent most of her life trying to escape was part of you. We talked about what to do for a long time. Nodoka was desperate to enable you to grow up and live your life as a normal human, but she had no idea how to. I hoped she could succeed, but I also knew that if you did become Sanjiyan, you needed to be able to handle it. After about a week, Nodoka decided that her presence risked empowering your Sanjiyan side and she insisted that I take you and raise you till you were a man. So we began our long training trip.  
"I was determined that if I failed to keep you human you should at least have some experience with travel and Martial Arts in preparation for life as a Sanjiyan. And as you were about to turn sixteen, I decided to hedge our bets and take you to Jusenkyo to add an extra bit of insurance that your Sanjiyan nature would remain sealed."  
"So what about that promise? The man among men thing?" Nabiki asked.  
Nodoka looked at her. "That was my idea. Genma told me that he was coming home after Jusenkyo, I wanted to see my son again so much, but I was still terrified that I might awaken the Sanjiyan nature within him. I chickened out at the last moment, and Genma decided to come here instead." She sighed and looked down. "I kept planning to come, but the fear kept holding me back. Eventually I contacted Genma and we tried to think up a way for me to see Ranma with the Jusenkyo curse as a buffer. Genma and I thought up the man among men promise as a way to keep you in your cursed form without having to burden you with the knowledge that you weren't fully human. Genma told me that there was no sign of your Sanjiyan side manifesting, so I was planning a way to reveal your secret and accept your manliness. However before I could, Akane was attacked, and your pain and anger at seeing her dying awoke my side of you're heritage. You made her your WU to save her life."  
Ranma looked at Akane, then said quietly "Hai." Akane looked back at him, a somewhat surprised expression on her face.  
"Akane," Nodoka said, turning her attention to her sons Fiancée.  
Blinking back her surprise Akane looked at Nodoka. "Hai?"  
"You aren't sure you believe what I've said, are you?"  
"Well..."  
"Give me your hand a moment," Nodoka said evenly. Akane looked at her a moment, then extended her open right hand toward Mrs. Saotome, palm up. Nodoka touched the fingers of her own right hand to Akane's, then her left hand stabbed a Tanto dagger into Akane's palm.  
It took everyone a moment to overcome the sense of shock enough to react. Ranma was first, grabbing his mother's wrist, and yanking it back. Before he could do anything more, Nodoka said, "Hold up your hand, Akane."  
Akane was looking at her just wounded hand, and looked at Nodoka she held it up. As everyone watched, the blood that had poured from the wound flowed back into it. Soon the wound had faded without a trace.  
"Hmm, getting soft in your old age I see," Genma commented.  
Nodoka glanced at him with an annoyed look, "She is my son's fiancée, not some slow witted wanderer I just met."  
Genma turned to Akane and said, "She illustrated my newly-gained healing power to me by chopping off my head." He rubbed his neck and winced somewhat.  
As Ranma sat back down at the table, Soun finally stopped crying. "Well, this is all a bit of a shock, but my little girl is alive and well and that's what's important."  
Nodoka and Genma both looked away from him and coughed in near perfect unison. "Well..." Genma said.  
"Technically..." Nodoka added.  
"Umm, the term most commonly used is, er, undead." Genma finished. Soun stared at him, then started crying again.  
"Undead?" Akane asked.  
"Undead, as in something like a vampire or a zombie?" Nabiki said, looking right at the Saotome's.  
Nodoka frowned and said, "It's a label humanity placed on the WU."  
  
Suddenly a small object blurred into the room. "Ranma-Chan!" it called out, as it resolved itself into Happosei long enough to splash Ranma with a bucket of cold water. A second later the old pervert had clamped himself onto Ranma's newly acquired breasts.  
"GRRAA!" Ranma replied. Her clothes were whipped by an unseen wind, her hair raised by an updraft that only affected her, then there was a blinding flash of light and a crash.  
Ranma had risen to her feet. Her right arm was extended from throwing Happosei into the garden. Her third eye was open and glaring at the old master. "You disgusting old freak," she said, her voice vibrating with power.  
When this had happened a few hours ago, all of Ranma's attention had been directed to Akane. Now Akane was safe, and she felt none of the pain that had accompanied her initial awakening. She could feel the power coursing through her body, focusing in the eye that had just opened in her forehead.  
What's more, this third eye didn't see what her other two saw. Through it she saw the spirits that were everywhere. She could see the cloud of dark spiritual energy surrounding the old man she had just thrown into the backyard. And despite the newness of this new sight, she knew instinctively what she was seeing. And as she looked at the wind, actually seeing it for the first time; she knew that she could do more than just look. Taking a step toward the garden she raised her hands.  
As Ranma lifted her hands, wind swirled around her, picking up speed. Ranma shifted her hands, once again extending the two outer fingers while bringing her thumb to meet the other two. She jabbed her hands forward, and as the wind around her died down, a dramatically stronger wind formed around Happosei, lifting the old pervert into the air. Ranma quickly gestured away with her right hand. Happosei was hurled into the distant sky. Ranma smiled slightly.  
Then the smile faded, and she pivoted and leaped onto the roof of the Dojo. Everyone ran into the yard.  
"Ranma?" Genma called to his son, then jumped onto the roof after him as he heard a sudden shriek of pain. Landing on the roof, he ran to where Ranma sat, rubbing her somewhat scorched foot and looking at three paper charms lying on the roof in front of her. Smoke was rising from the middle one.  
"Ow, Old Ghoul," Ranma muttered to herself as she stopped rubbing her foot and stood. A quick glance confirmed what Genma recognized from Ranma's voice, the third eye was closed again.  
"You shouldn't startle an old woman like that." Cologne responded from the other side of the wards. "You scared me half to death."  
Genma looked at the ancient Matriarch, who was standing on the other side of the wards from Ranma. He picked up a ward and commented, "Expecting trouble?"  
Cologne folded her arms into her sleeves and responded, "Earlier this afternoon I had a sudden sense of great darkness and danger. I grabbed a few wards and tracked it down, and arrived just as you were running off with Ranma and Akane. I felt something strange about them, and I decided I had better follow."  
"And why were you hiding here?"  
"I didn't want to show myself until I had some idea what was happening." Cologne shrugged and walked to the edge of the roof. All three martial artists jumped into the yard below.  
"Great Grandmother!" Shampoo cried in surprise as she saw Cologne.  
"Come Shampoo, we both have much to think about." Cologne responded as she used her staff to leap from roof to roof in the direction of the Nekohanten. Shampoo looked after her, paused and looked at Ranma. Then she jumped over the wall and began following Cologne. Mousse immediately followed Shampoo.  
Genma looked at the retreating trio of Amazon's and commented, "Well we've still got some things to discuss. Let's head back inside.."  
"Nabiki, would you hand this to Akane?" Genma said as he sat down, handing a spirit ward to the middle Tendo sister. Nabiki looked at the very ordinary looking piece of paper in her hand and extended it to her sister.  
"OWWW!" Akane cried as she jerked her hand away from the paper. "That's red hot!" She added as she massaged her hand.  
"To you and Ranma now," Genma replied, tearing the one in his hand in half.   
"That may be important to know, but I think we have more important concerns right now." Nodoka said. "I asked Shampoo about what you fought, and it was definitely some sort of Stygian order demon. I was never too familiar with them so I can't be too sure but if one of them appeared it was almost certainly summoned by someone."  
"When I find out who they'll be sorry." Ranma commented quietly.  
"Tomorrow son." Genma replied. "I still remember enough about Magic to put together something that will let us track whoever summoned that demon, but you are going to get a good night's sleep first."  
Ranma opened his mouth to protest, but Nodoka interrupted him, "You've used a lot of magic today, and you will need to be at full strength, just in case." She smiled. "We have plenty to talk about till then," She looked at Ukyo. "I'd like to know why your chasing after my son and calling him your fiancée for instance."  
Genma's face suddenly became much whiter and he said. "Uh, I'll need to start the compass witch, ah witch compass."  
"Sit down, Dearest." Nodoka replied. "I'd like to hear your viewpoint on this too."  



	2. Chapter 2

Legal: The characters of Ranma ½ were created by the great Rumiko Takahashi.  
I am using them without permission, hopefully for the purpose of entertaining someone. If anyone who has a right to sue me has that desire, I have almost no money.  
C&C is appreciated, you can contact me at brendan@wiltonnewyork.com. And if you want to see the earlier parts of this and my other stories, you can find them at http://www.wiltonnewyork.com/Brendan  
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Ranma three and a half eyes  
Chapter 2  
by Brendan O'Donnell  
  
"... So as I was watching Ranchan and Akane arguing I thought about everything, and I realized that I would rather satisfy family honor by marrying him instead killing him." Ukyo concluded her explanation to Nodoka Saotome.  
Nodoka looked at Ukyo. She moved her head to look at Genma. Genma began to sweat. "Genma," she began; her use of his first name prompted a quick gulp from her husband. "I know you've been very sensitive about food after having to spend two years without eating, but I don't think that's an excuse."  
"I... No..." Genma replied slowly, directing his gaze to the table. A few silent moments later he looked up into his wife's eyes. She couldn't speak directly into his mind any more but he knew she was demanding an answer. "Well when he offered the Yatai, that's why I immediately wanted to say yes, but I..." he looked at her again. "I... I guess I thought if I did something I knew you'd disapprove of I wouldn't miss you so much."  
Nodoka blinked.  
"I'm sorry Nochan." Genma added quietly.  
  
"Ukyo." Hearing her name called she turned and looked at Mrs. Saotome, who had stepped out of the Dojo after her.  
"Mrs. Saotome?"  
"Call me Nodoka, please. I was hoping you would let me walk you home, I think there are a few more things we should discuss."  
Ukyo wasn't sure what to feel. She felt unnerved by the Revelation that Ranma wasn't completely human, she felt a betrayed because of the new bond that had suddenly formed between her fiancée and her rival, and she was afraid that she would be discounted as Ranma's fiancée. Now Nodoka wanted to talk to her. *If she's going to talk about the new situation negating my engagement, she'd better save her breath for Shampoo. I tracked Ranma for ten years, and he's mine!* "Thank you M... Nodoka," Ukyo replied, turning and starting toward the Dojo. "I am your son's fiancée after all."  
"Many of the humans I have met through the years feared the Sanjiyan just because we are not like them. That's the main reason we returned to Japan where there were few people who knew I was once a Sanjiyan. It's nice to see someone who's not repulsed by this discovery."  
"I could never be repulsed by anything about my Ranchan. Besides all we have to do is go to China and redo whatever ritual you did with the Nanichuan. Ranma goes back to being human and get's cured to boot,"  
"It wouldn't work," Nodoka replied. Seeing Ukyo pause and look at her she continued, "The power Ranma now possesses is far greater than all the springs in Jusenkyo combined. For the Ritual to work requires one thing I had and Ranma lacks, an overpowering desire to become human. That kind of desire is the result of decades of searching. Besides Ranma knows that if he is cured his nature will pass on to his children, so the necessary desire will be even harder to develop."  
Ukyo looked at Nodoka. Nodoka looked back and smiled. "Well for the moment let's forget that. Let's pretend instead that there is a simple and quick way for Ranma to regain his humanity and that he decided to marry you afterward. What do you think it would be like being married to my son?"  
Ukyo didn't need to think. She had been contemplating and planing the details of her marriage to Ranma since the moment he called her cute. She began to share those plans and fantasies with Nodoka, the details of their quiet life running an Okonomiki restaurant together. A few minutes later as she was explaining her preferred names for the children, she noticed Nodoka was looking forward with a troubled expression on her face. Pushing down a surge of fear she said, "Nodoka?"  
"Do you know my son at all?" Nodoka commented quietly, then shook her head and glanced at Ukyo. "Oh, sorry, I was just thinking of something. Anyway, I'm not going to do anything to force you to end your engagement to Ranma but it would probably be best if you did. Magic that can make a Sanjiyan human is so rare and powerful that the search would take decades or even centuries. You shouldn't throw away your life waiting for someone who would return looking young enough to be your grandson."  
"Who said anything about waiting. I'd be perfectly happy traveling with Ranma and helping him search. If he couldn't become human, couldn't he just give Akane back her soul and take mine instead?"  
"The type of magic that can restore a WU's soul is almost as rare as that which can make a Sanjiyan Human." She shook her head. "I'm quite familiar with the human capacity to overcome the odds, but I really hope you don't try to match Kyosaku. My son was inadvertently responsible for your loosing 10 years in pursuit of him, and he wouldn't want to be responsible for making you throwing away the rest of your life wandering through perpetual danger watching a man you care about stay the same while you grow older.  
"That's your restaurant, right?"  
Ukyo blinked a moment, then looked to see Ucchan's sign a few feet away from her. She nodded.  
"Then I guess I've escorted you home." Nodoka commented as she turned. She stopped and looked over her shoulder at Ukyo. "Here's one more thing to think about. There has never been any possibility of Ranma leading a quiet life. Whether awoken or not Ranma is a living generator of magic power. Magic comes from chaos, so magic attracts chaos. No matter how Ranma's life had turned out it would have been chaotic indeed." Nodoka smiled. "Whatever happens remember that you are a fine young woman and there are many fine men who would risk everything for someone like you. Please embrace that truth and let my son go his way in peace."  
Ukyo stood by the door of her shop looking at Nodoka walking away. Narrowing her eyes she opened the door and entered, slamming it shut after her with almost enough force to shatter the frame.  
  
Ranma lay on his futon. With everything that had happened today, he didn't expect to sleep at all, but instead he found a feeling of exhaustion swallow him up. He lay there snoring quietly. Then suddenly all three eyes opened and he sat up and looked around. He was in the Tendo Living room, looking at a table laden with every kind of food imaginable. He grinned and grabbed a rice cake to start, then froze as he felt a presence behind him. Glancing over his shoulder he saw a girl about his age. She was about his height, and wearing a very worn brown traveling kimono. A Kitana was stuck through the sash at the waist, and her light brown hair fell loose somewhat past her shoulders. Her face looked a lot like his Girl forms, except for the third eye in her forehead. Ranma realized he was looking at a younger version of his mother.  
"Nothing to say?" The young Nodoka commented in a sarcastic tone of voice. Walking up the table she sat next to him, grabbed a rice ball and devoured it in three bites. "Well your mindscape has a good sense of taste, I guess." She commented, chuckling to herself.  
"Mindscape?"  
"This dream of yours we're sharing. It's entirely a construct of your own mind." She looked around "It certainly looks like the real thing."  
"We're sharing a dream? You are mom aren't you?"  
"Yes and sort of, to answer both questions. Your mother obviously never explained the growing corruption in the Sanjiyan bloodlines. In our day, the elders were cruel and held everything but power in contempt. The younger of us often came to develop two separate personalities, one mastering the power of this," She raised her hand by her third eye. "The other being the more versed in the ways of friendship. I was the part of Vishnaru who mastered her power of magic."  
"Wait a minute, who's Vishnaru?"  
"Shortly after your father became our WU, your mother decided to adopt a more common human name. We were actually born Vishnaru, youngest daughter of Kali II."  
"Kali?" *Have I heard that name before?* Ranma thought to himself.  
"The legends were based on a collection of gross exaggerations and outright lies about my grandmother!" She snapped. "Everyone reacts like that..." She muttered. "Anyway, shortly after your mother met your father, they discussed human names. After Genma said Nodoka was a good example of a name appropriate for a beautiful woman like her, she decided to call herself that. I on the other hand have always remained true to my original name of Vishnaru."  
"Ok, so you're part of my mother." Ranma said.  
"Was part of your mother, the part of her that best understood the magic which flowed through our veins like liquid fire. When we performed the conversion ritual at Jusenkyo I expected that I would either merge with Nodoka's personality forever or else simply cease to exist. Instead I found myself separated from our body. It was quite unexpected and rather frightening."  
Ranma looked at Vishnaru and tried to think of something to say. Before he could she looked him in the eyes and smiled fiercely. "It wasn't what I had planned, but I've come to really enjoy being like this. I'm free of the limitations of the physical body." She held up her hand looking into her palm. "I have entered the great void and touched the point where all things become as one." She sat there quietly a moment. "But that has nothing to do with why I'm here. Ranma, in maters of Magic you have talent and power, but absolutely no real skill. Nodoka's worried about you for this fact so I'm here to get rid of her concerns."  
Ranma looked at his mother's... former split personality. "How."  
"How Sensei!" She snapped. "You have a lot to learn and the quicker you learn it, the less likely your mother will have to organize a funeral for you!" She raised a hand and suddenly they were siting on a grassy plain. "This feels like a better environment to start."  
  
Shampoo stood in the kitchen of the Nekohanten, watching as Cologne opened the door to the cellar. "Great Grandmother..."  
Cologne paused and looked at her great granddaughter. "Hush Shampoo. I know you want to help, but I have to research some of the more arcane books I have and you simply haven't learned enough to help me. Just be content making sure the restaurant runs smoothly."  
"Hai." She commented as she walked back into the dining area. *Arrr, I hate not being able to do anything but wait. Still that's all I can do. With luck Great Grandmother will figure out how to turn Ranma... back the way he was, Then his mother will definitely accept me as Ranma's wife.*  
  
Cologne closed and locked the door behind her. Quickly descending the stairs she walked past several crates. Pausing she looked at an open crate beside her. Clenching her fist she struck the box with the side of her fist, reducing it to a cloud of splinters.  
{What's wrong?} Cologne felt the words form in the back of her mind. Frowning she continued to a small table three feet away from the wall.  
Looking at a small globe of obsidian she said, "Things have not gone well."  
Ripples began to shimmer across Cologne's reflection in the sphere. {Odd,} the voice responded. {Even you would have had trouble stooping that demon. Shampoo's presence would prevent you from being suspected, and your summoning at the Kuno estate would not have left any signs of your actions. What happened.}  
"It seems that Ranma's parents have kept an important secret from him and from me." Cologne said, siting on the cushions before the table. "My future son in law is not human."  
{Interesting. But how did this affect what transpired?}  
  
Genma Saotome sat at a small table in the Dojo, carving at a hexagonal piece of ashwood with a long knife. He put the knife down and carefully examined his work. Nodding to himself he picked up the knife again and carved a few more curls of wood from the grove bisecting the wood artifact. Putting both carving and knife down he picked up a length of wire and carefully pushed it into the grove.  
"Genma."  
Genma raised his hands from his work, then dropped them to rest on the table. "Nodoka."  
His wife sighed as she entered the room. "We have almost become strangers." Walking to the other side of the table she sat and examined Genma's work with a critical eye..  
"I haven't forgotten what I learned with you." Genma commented quietly.  
"Not magic it seems." She responded. "Though we used much less passive effects than this."  
"We used whatever we could use that would work best. That's still the case."  
"I talked to Ukyo. You really ruined her life."  
"I know. I thought it would simply create a small economic hardship for her family, not the catastrophe it invoked." Genma contemplated the inkstone and peachwood brushes beside the incomplete witch compass. "Her Yatai, I used that Kirin shrine trick."  
Nodoka looked at him. She smiled. "That does go a long way toward making amends. But you have to make her accept it. That will be difficult."  
"I know." He looked at his wife a moment, then picked up the inkstick and began rubbing it on the inkstone.  
  
Ranma opened his eyes and blinked a moment. Glancing sideways he confirmed that his father was sleeping next to him. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. *Weird, I can clearly remember that session with Vishnaru, but I still feel like I slept the entire night.*  
Suddenly he heard a loud scream. *AKANE!* Springing to his feet he ran through the hall. Reaching the bathroom he threw open the door and froze at the sight of Akane's naked form standing in front of the mirror.  
"Woah!" Ranma called as he spun to look the opposite direction from his pervert-hating fiancee. "I'm sorry, I just... I heard... so I..."  
"It really happened." Akane said quietly, not moving from where she stood before the mirror, her right hand feeling her forehead where the Chinese character for void had become a part of her.  
Ranma blinked. Concentrating a moment, he willed his third eye to open. He sharply inhaled as his senses suddenly expanded and his body filled with power. He looked down as he raised his hands, he felt stronger than he had ever felt in his life. Closing all three eyes, Ranma responded, "Yeah, I'm not human," as he felt his body collapse back into normality. Reaching behind him, he felt the door's handle and pushed it shut.  
*'I'm not human.'* Akane thought of what Ranma had said seconds before. With her fingertips she traced the character on her forehead, then glanced down and looked for any trace of where she had been impaled by the demon's tail the day before. Her skin was unmarked. *Ranma's not human.* "And neither am I."  
  
Ukyo sat in her restaurant's small bathing room soaping her body with the quick precision of routine. Her mind wandered to the events of the previous day. The attack Ranma and the other's had talked about. *Something like that happens and I'm not even there! If Ranma hadn't been... what his mother says he is,* She thought of Akane dying. An image popped into her mind of her consoling Ranma, then of him thanking her and...*NO!* She shook her head, to clear it, then poured cold rinse water to help the process. *I don't want to win that way! I don't! I just want Ranma to realize I'm his only real fiancée and marry me.*  
She thought about Ranma. And she saw him looking at Akane the previous evening. She clearly remembered the look and how much she wished that he would someday look at her that way. With a depressed sigh she picked up her shampoo and started washing her hair. The familiarity of the activity gave her time to think, and she pushed her depressed musing away. *I'm acting almost as bad as Ryouga! I will not give up!* She rinsed her hair, then paused to run her fingers through it. *Cute fiancée vs. Uncute fiancée. No contest.*  
  
Genma sat at table in the main room, with the entire Tendo and Saotome families gathered around him. He picked up the witch compass he had created the night before. "It's not that complicated. I just put some of the demon's blood here," he indicated a circular depression at one end of a grove bisecting the wood hexagon, "And it'll lead us right to wherever it was summoned from." Genma placed the witch compass in a bowl of water, then put a small shard of the sword which Shampoo had shattered against the demon the previous day into the depression. The compass floated still a moment then rotated a few degrees and came to a stop.  
"Ok, let's go pop!" Ranma commented as he came to his feet.  
"I'm going too." Akane said as she stood, double-checking that her Gi's belt was properly tied.  
"Oh no you aren't." Ranma responded angrily. Seeing Akane's dark glower he added in a quieter tone, "I don't wanna half to worry about you."  
"Worry... You made me immortal remember!!"  
Ranma looked down at the table. "It was the only way to save you."  
Akane blinked in surprise. Then she looked down. "Ranma, thank you for worrying about me, but it's not necessary any more." Ranma looked at her, and she met his gaze. Then she smiled in an unpleasant way. "Besides I want to meet whoever sent that thing after us."  
Genma looked at his son and smiled. Then he rose to his feet and started for the front door. "Let's go!"  
  
Nodoka looked up at the sign identifying the building she had stopped in front of. *I hope Ranma and Dearest are all right. Ranma is so new to his power and if Genma has to... No! until I hear differently whatever they find will be within their capacity to deal with!* She forced herself to relax, then entered.  
"Welcome to Nekohanten! Ah, Mother in law! Shampoo happy to see you!" Shampoo said as she came up to Nodoka. "Come Shampoo show you table, you have Ramen on house!"  
"Thank you," Nodoka commented to Shampoo as she was led to a table close to the counter. "Are you too busy to join me? I came over because I need to talk to you." She sat at the table. "About my son and his new WU."  
Shampoo paused on her way to the kitchen, then shook her head to clear it and walked up to the serving window. Her father passed her two bowls of the deluxe ramen, and she carried them back to Nodoka's table.  
"Shampoo, you were there when it happened."  
Shampoo sat and looked at her bowl of Ramen. She didn't want to remember the demon, wished she had never heard the pain in Ranma's voice when Akane lay dying in his arms. "Shampoo there," She said softly.  
"My husband told me about the law requiring you to marry my son. Does the fact that he isn't human have any effect on that?"  
"Shampoo... not know. Shampoo not care! Just want Ranma to love Shampoo." She looked into her soup, remembering the way she had seen Ranma look at Akane sometimes when he thought no one was looking. The moment the demon had attacked Akane, she recalled a brief shamefull flash of happiness at the loss of her greatest rival, even as her heart had been torn apart with sorrow.  
"We don't have to talk about that." Nodoka said quietly. "Any time you do want to talk about it, I'll make time and talk to you." She picked up her chopsticks, and stirred the Ramen a moment.  
Spending a moment to sample some of the noodles and broth Nodoka said, "Delicious, I see why you have done so well."  
"Nekohanten best Ramen in Tokyo." Shampoo replied with a smile. Her smile faded.  
Nodoka looked at Shampoo a moment. With a sigh she said, "There's something else I came to talk about. You've been here for a year, you've seen how my son attracts chaos." She looked at Shampoo who nodded. "Magic is from chaos, so magic attracts chaos. Last year's events are partially because of the dormant magic that has always slumbered within my son. It's awake now. What he will draw will make the last year seem dull."  
Shampoo looked at Nodoka. "Shampoo not frighten off easy."  
Nodoka smiled. "I'm not trying to scare you. I'm not even really here to ask for anything that directly affects my son. I'm here about Akane." She looked at Shampoo a moment, then pulled a few noodles from the bowl and slurped them down.  
Shampoo blinked and looked at Nodoka. "What Akane need from Shampoo?"  
"Her role is to protect my son when he's vulnerable. Now she should learn magic, but it's going to take all my effort just teaching Ranma enough of the basics and that's assuming he has the Sanjiyan instincts for spellcraft." She looked down. "I don't know how long before forces drawn by my son make him leave Nerima, but I want Akane to be as capable of protecting him as she can become. In short she needs training, and you're the only person I can think of who could do it."  
Shampoo blinked. She looked at Nodoka and thought of what she had just asked. To help her greatest rival become stronger. She thought of training, of the many opportunities to "Accidentally" push just past what Akane could survive. She pushed the thought away from her feeling sick for thinking it. "Shampoo, Shampoo not think she best choice. Ranma is..."  
"Ranma's no good." Nodoka responded. "I don't know how good a teacher he is, but I do know that he cares too much about her." Nodoka looked her in the eyes, and Shampoo could see the pain hidden there. "Akane doesn't just need to learn to fight, she has to come to terms with the nature and limits of her new immortality. She needs someone who will push her past human limits, will strike to kill and maim and not pull any punches." She shuddered and looked down. "I'm sorry. This isn't the sort of thing anybody should be asked to do. But if it isn't done Akane might not be able to keep Ranma from being killed. And his life is hers now"  
"Great-Grandmother..."  
"I called her this morning. She said no."  
Shampoo looked at Nodoka with a surprised look on her face. "Why say no?" she said quietly.  
"Well, she said that she was sure that if she studied the amazon lore she had she could eliminate the need, and said something about there being trouble if she taught another outsider."  
*The tomes I can understand, but she has discretion to impart her knowledge in any way she is sure will not harm the Amazon's. I'd better ask her about it later.*  
  
Genma was walking along the wall of the Kuno estate. He came to a stop and looked at the compass closely. Ranma and Akane stood behind him sharing similar impatient looks.  
"Come on, let's find whoever summoned that thing!" Ranma said angrily.  
"We have." Genma replied. "Or at least we now know where it was summoned from." He raised his hand and tapped the wall. "In there"  
Ranma stared at him a moment. "Kuno or Kodachi?!" He stared disbelievingly at the wall for a long moment. Then he glanced at Akane and his eyes narrowed angrily. Turning back to the Kuno estate he casually leaped to the top of the wall. Akane and his father followed him.  
  
"In here," Genma commented as he stood before the Kuno greenhouse, pausing to glance at the shattered traps littering the ground of the estate.  
Ranma grabbed the door and flung it open. Holding up his hand he caught the large iron sphere which had dropped from the roof. Casually tossing it aside he walked into the huge edifice. He knew he was standing in Kuno's section of the greenhouse. Growing on the tables to either side of him were red long stemmed roses. On every table stretching to the distant other side of the greenhouse.  
"This way." Genma commented as he stepped in front of Ranma and Akane and started leading them foreword and through the rows of tables. They realized they had entered Kodachi's area when the Roses surrounding them turned black. Then they were past the Tables of flowers and walking among Hawaiian trees and plants.  
"I thought Principal Kuno lived at the school." Ranma commented.  
"So did I." Akane responded.  
They walked a little further into a clear space. Which contained a pentagram with the burnt down remains of black candles at each point and a small pile of red wax was in it's center. "This is where it was summoned." Genma said.  
"Was that demon connected to Hawaii in any way?" Ranma asked.  
"No it's summoning base was more concentrated in Austria as I recall." Genma responded.  
"SO THE SORCEROR RETURNS!"  
Ranma and Akane looked as Kuno rushed from the trees to his right. He was dressed in his usual Kendo outfit, however instead of his Boken he had a real Katana in hand. "Did you think that your defacement of the Kuno sanctuary would go unnoticed? Prepare to die for whatever magic's you sought to use against me could not touch the Blue Thunder, chosen of the heavens!" He surged foreword lashing out with a viscous slash aimed to cut Ranma in half just below the ribcage. Ranma calmly leaned back avoiding the attack, then with his eyes tightening he lashed out two strikes to Kuno's shoulders. Kuno screamed in pain as his sword fell from his spasming hands.  
"Ranma..." Akane stated, stepping foreword then stopping to look at him and Kuno with a shocked expression.  
Ranma ignored her and grabbed Kuno by the throat and pushed him against a palm tree. "That was a clean dislocation. It'll hurt like hell but you'll recover with no permanent damage. This time."  
Kuno stared at Ranma, his eyes narrowing in hatred. "Vile sorcerer."  
"Now get this straight. The reason I'm here is because a demon almost killed Akane yesterday and we just learned that it was summoned from that circle. Now who summoned it!"  
Kuno's eyes shifted from Ranma to Akane then back. "Think you the Blue Thunder is fooled so easily? There is but one sorcerer here and it is you! You clearly have grown tired of Akane and sought to dispose of her through your pacts with the darkness! The vengeance of heaven is slow but sure and I shall be it's hand!"  
Kuno interrupted his rant to scream as Ranma grabbed his shoulders and popped both joints back into place before striking a quick blow to Kuno's face, knocking him unconscious.  
Ranma turned and walked back to Akane. "I don't think he knows. Well it's not like I ever thought he had the brains to pull off something like demon summoning. So it's either Kodachi, Principal Kuno or someone snuck in here and did this in secret." He shook his head. "I can hardly believe anyone did it." He took a step toward the pentagram and looked it over. Frowning he opened his third eye, and almost jumped back as he saw Vishnaru standing in front of him a bored expression on her face.  
"You finally decided to actually look. Took you long enough." Ranma opened his mouth, prompting her to scream, "DON'T TALK!" Calming herself she added, "Remember, if I and everything I teach you are a secret, if there's trouble you will have an advantage that your enemy wouldn't know about."  
With a sigh Ranma concentrated on the basic telepathic magic she had taught him in the previous nights dreams. {OK, I did help come up with that plan remember?}  
"Is anything wrong, Ranma?" Akane asked as she stepped up to him.  
Ranma glanced at her. "Uh no no, it's just," He paused to raise his hand to his third eye. "Things look really different, it takes getting used to." He looked back at Vishnaru.  
"Play with your Wu another time kid. This is more important."  
"What's it like?" Akane asked.  
"Um, I'm not sure how to describe it. Now if you don't mind I might be able to see something important." He stepped foreword and began circling the Pentagram.  
"Done?"  
{What am I supposed to be looking at here?}  
"OK, next lesson. You remember how I explained the basic principals of seeing the patterns of force?"  
{Yeah,}  
"Well look in the center of the pentagram."  
{It's a big jumble.}  
Vishnaru grinned and raised her hands toward the pentagram, her third eye glowing brightly, then fading as she lowered her hands. "Look again."  
As Ranma watched all the patterns but two faded away. "This is the demon's essence," Vishnaru commented as she materialized a pointer of light and indicated a black aura which suffused much of the area. "This," she indicated a different pattern, "Is a part of the magic that imprinted with the summoners pattern.  
"Now, Genma is working on tracking the responsible party through the aspect of the demon's essence which would have contaminated their aura in the process of summoning and dealing with it. This is the easiest to spot, but there are ways of blocking and hiding its presence. Now the pattern fragment is something you wouldn't spot unless you specifically look for it, but it's something that can't be disguised."  
{So how do I find who's responsible?}  
"I'm here to teach you, not hold your hand and sing lullabies! You'll have to figure that one out on your own." With that she vanished. Ranma looked back into the pentagram. The jumble he had first seen was back, but now he looked and saw the two elements that were so important. He glanced at Kuno. There was no trace of the demon's essence that Vishnaru had pointed out. Looking further he concentrated on the patterns he could see in Kuno's Aura. None of them resembled the imprint in the pentagram.  
"Um, I can see, something in that penwhatsits, and I think I can see what's both there and on that compass thing.  
"I don't se anything like it on Kuno," Ranma added.  



	3. Chapter 3

Legal: The characters of Ranma ½ were created by the great Rumiko Takahashi.  
I am using them without permission, hopefully for the purpose of entertaining someone. If anyone who has a right to sue me has that desire, I have almost no money.  
C&C is appreciated, you can contact me at brendan@wiltonnewyork.com. And if you want to see the earlier parts of this and my other stories, you can find them at http://www.wiltonnewyork.com/Brendan  
--------  
  
Ranma three and a half eyes  
Chapter 3  
by Brendan O'Donnell  
  
"You're sure neither of them had that whatever it is?" Akane asked Ranma in an annoyed tone.  
"Uh-huh," Ranma responded without taking his eyes from the street ahead of him. *Well neither Kuno or Kodachi had any trace of the either signature, but that means that it could be anyone. Who?*  
"Any ideas who it might be then?" Akane asked in response.  
"None."  
"Want to get married?"  
"Yea... Hey, What?"  
"Just seeing how much attention you were paying." Akane said as she skipped ahead of him with a big grin. "And I wanted to see if you'd say you love me after that bit yesterday."  
Ranma turned bright red. "Wh-Who said anything about love. I mean where did you get the idea??"  
"Oh so you awoke that ancestral power of yours because you felt your honor required it?" Akane responded with a big grin.  
"Uh, well, yeah! I..."  
"No need to rush things, you kids have plenty of time to work out how you feel." Genma commented as he walked calmly past the pair.  
Ranma and Akane facefaulted.  
Genma looked back at them, scowled slightly and added, "I was in love with your mother for eighteen years before I got up the nerve to admit it to her." He shook his head and continued down the street. "Immortality changes your sense of time." Looking ahead he added quietly, "So does returned mortality."  
  
"Shampoo! Surely you're ready to give up on that monster who fooled you with his illusion of quack quack quack!!"  
Shampoo put the glass in the Nekohanten sink and turned off the cold water. Ignoring the duck she walked into the front of the resteraunt where Cologne was siting smoking her pipe. "Great-Grandmother, Ranma's mother just ask Shampoo train Akane."  
Cologne looked at her a moment. "You could benefit from the experience of training someone. Though you should consider carefully before aiding a rival for Ranma's affections."  
*She didn't call Ranma son-in-law, has she given up on bringing us together?* "Nodoka says she ask you and you say no, why you do that?" Shampoo added quietly.  
Cologne looked at her and sighed. "Caution Shampoo, caution. I will not give up on the hope of a son in law of Ranma's potential, but I must understand the risks before I allow myself to become too involved. If his mother is right then his presence at the village could prove a grave danger. I must watch and learn."  
"Does Great Grandmother want Shampoo not teach not living girl?"  
Cologne glanced at Shampoo a moment, then shook her head. "I have no concerns about you teaching her, I'll even help you plan your sessions. But only if it's your decision. I will not advise you one way or the other."  
"Akane now not living girl supposed to protect Ranma. Shampoo help her."  
*And help me learn more about Ranma and Akane as they have become.* Cologne remembered the advice she had received through the conduit of the orb. *"Cologne, be careful not to let yourself get too close to the infant Sanjiyan, but monitor his development as closely as possible."* As always she contemplated the aid she had received, looking for traps, hidden agendas, and double-dealing. It was basically a habit since in all her infrequent dealings with Nephredana, she had always had the upper hand in the final analysis. *Demons are known for their cleverness and deviousness, but she is no match for Me.*  
  
Floating over a small table covered with Red lace was a globe of obsidian, about half a foot in diameter. A smooth, very feminine hand with long red nails caressed it a moment. "An unexpected twist in the game. I may snag Cologne a few decades sooner than I thought."  
  
"What did you find out?" Nabiki asked as she entered the house's entryway.  
Ranma looked up at her as he removed his shoes. "Not much. Is mom here?"  
"She's in the guest room." Nabiki replied with a frown. "Now what do you mean by..." She paused as Ranma moved past her and made a beeline for the stairs. She looked at Akane.  
"I guess he must want to ask her about that sight thing he figured out." Akane said half to herself. Looking at Nabiki she said in a more conversational tone, "The demon was summoned from the Kuno's greenhouse, but we checked and they didn't do it. At least not unless it was the principal, but he's taking another vacation to Hawaii so it probably wasn't." She sighed and looked down, her face a mixture of conflicting emotions. "Who did it Nabiki? I... I hear it every day, 'prepare to die,' but, it's never seemed serious before."  
Nabiki looked at her little sister. "And Aunt Nodoka is worried that life may get strange around here." She shook her head. "Don't worry Akane, when things start to get crazy the best thing to do is simply ignore everything you can't control and concentrate on controlling what you can."  
  
"Hi mom!" Ranma said as he entered the guestroom. His mother looked up from where she sat, pausing to put down her calligraphy brush.  
"Hello Ranma. I just finished this charm for our first lesson. So tell me about what happened. If there's something to be learned from that you should study it while the experience is fresh in your mind."  
"Ok. Well, we followed Dad's witch compass and it led right to the Kuno estate."  
"Oh my, the two..."  
"Lunatics? Well, Kuno attacked me when we found the pentacle where the demon was summoned from; he thought 'The Sorcerer Saotome' did it and couldn't understand the word no. I knocked him out, then I took a look at the pentacle with this." He raised his right hand motioning as though to tap on his forehead with two fingers.  
"What did you see?"  
"A big confused mess. But I started comparing the mess to that bit of blood on the end of that compass of Dad's, and I saw it was the same as a part of the jumble in the pentacle."  
"That would have been the demon's aura. The aura of the caster's would have been there as well, though you probably would have missed it since it's very hard to spot, unless you really understand what your looking for."  
"Um, I looked at Kuno and didn't see any of that demon aura thing. And not on Kodachi when I got her to quiet down and let me look." He shuddered.  
Nodoka glanced at him for a moment. "We will go someplace quiet for our first lesson in magic, however there is a fast lesson you can begin learning now." She took out her katana and held it out in her hands before her. "Ranma, I want you to look at the blade. Dispel all thought of what you expect to see, just relax and focus on nothing."  
Ranma blinked. "Um..."  
"Don't argue, don't think, just do what I'm asking you. Relax your perceptions and remember how it felt when you opened your third eye. Don't open it, just remember the feeling."  
The two sat motionless.  
The clock advanced five minutes.  
Neither mother nor son moved.  
Three more minutes passed, then Ranma started. "Hey!"  
"What did you see?"  
"Well I thought there was another jumble of stuff but then it wasn't there. Thing is I felt a little like when I'm looking with all three eyes for a second there."  
"Good. Look at it with all three eyes then."  
Ranma opened his third eye and looked at his mother's sword, the one he had so long feared at the blade that would destroy his life and his family. The strands of power were tightly woven through and around it, and indeed flowed between it and his mother.  
"The same as what you saw that second, right?"  
Ranma looked into his mother's face. She was right.  
"You aren't nearly as strong without your third eye, but you still have the capacity to wield magics. Perception is the simplest of them."  
  
The phone rang.  
Picking up the phone Kasumi addressed the receiver, "Moshi-Moshi?" "Yes I'll tell her." She hung up then raised her head to call out, "Mrs. Saotome!"  
Nodoka appeared at the top of the stairs and called down, "What is it, Kasumi?"  
"Shampoo's calling for you!"  
"Ah!" Nodoka commented as she quickly descended the stairs and took the handset from Kasumi.  
"Shampoo, ... Ah good, thank you. ... Yes I'll talk to her and you two can train in the Dojo for now. ... No, I have to try training Ranma and it would be best to start somewhere away from everyone. ... Yes, I don't think Ranma would enjoy watching either. ... I'll explain everything to Akane, don't worry. ... Goodbye." Nodoka hung up the phone.  
  
"Akane."  
Akane looked up from where she was lying on her bed. "Auntie Saotome?"  
Nodoka entered the room, closing the door behind her. Walking to Akane's desk she turned the chair to face the bed and sat. "Akane we need to talk." She sighed. "You know how much everything's changed. My son, you, and that's just a small beginning." She looked down at her hands. "Chaos is the source of all that is, but especially of magic. Before yesterday Ranma was a natural... focus of magical force, but that was all. He simply acted as a concentration of magic." Raising her head, Nodoka looked at Akane. "You remember what it was like here after Ranma arrived?"  
"Well, it wasn't Ranma's fault, I mean Nerima has always been a bit wilder than the rest of Tokyo. And Ranma," Akane paused a moment. "Well maybe things got a little crazier than before, but there were plenty of things that didn't involve Ranma."  
"Though he was always part of them," Nodoka commented.  
"Kind of."  
"Akane, it's not a question of fault or purpose. Ranma simply by virtue of being who he is drew in chaos, intensifying it in the area. It's a completely natural phenomenon. But things changed yesterday." Nodoka looked Akane in the eye. "Ranma isn't a passive focus anymore, he's a fully active spellcaster." Nodoka raised her right hand in a palm up weighing gesture. "Among human spellcasters chaos effects are usually a lessor concern; the beginners don't have the magic force to draw very much and by the time they do gain the power, they've learned the control and precision to reduce the side effects of their magic." She raised her left hand in a balancing gesture. "But Ranma isn't human. He has enough power to do things off the top of his head that human spellcasters couldn't even conceive of without week long rituals and the highest levels of skill. Unfortunately this means that until Ranma learns a great deal more he will be the center of a 'swirl' of more magical energy than you have ever experienced in your life. What's coming will make last year's events seem like a spring shower compared to a typhoon.  
"I talked to Shampoo this morning about her giving you some advanced training."  
Akane sat up and looked at Mrs. Saotome. "I'm a pretty good martial artist!"  
Nodoka sighed. "I'm not saying you're not. But the fact is that you're not the same person you were two days ago, and unless you become accustomed to that, you are going to die when Ranma dies through your lack of preparation."  
Akane blinked. *Ranma die... not a threat, not an exageration, literal and real.*  
"Please Akane, It would mean so much to me."  
Looking down Akane responded, "Ok, I'll try letting her teach me a little, but she better not try anything with Ranma!"  
"Don't worry. Ranma and I will be going out of town for a few days so I can drill what I can on magic into his skull."  
"With that baka you'll need to pound it in." Akane muttered.  
Nodoka looked at her, then grinned. "Well, I have been planing the lessons to model after Martial Arts. That should speed up his learning rate."  
  
Nodoka sighed as she watched her son avoid three paper darts. His opponent, a student of Martial arts origami narrowed his eyes and folded a paper crane, which he threw at Ranma. Ranma easily sidestepped the projectile, then ducked just as it circled around his back. *It's already started,* she thought to herself.  
Ranma's opponent grinned at the small slash he had made in Ranma's sleeve, then flew backward from Ranma's kick.   
*According to Genma and the Tendos, Ranma's been challenged by dozens of practitioners of obscure martial arts.*  
Ranma's opponent pulled out a large sheet of paper and with a blur of hands folded it into a katana. With a yell he charged Ranma, slashing at him with his new weapon.  
*And of course Ranma will now draw these small annoyances more frequently, as well as drawing the serious problems. Like this person who claims Ranma spilled water on a great masterpiece of his.*  
Ranma dodged a several lightning fast slashes with the paper sword. Then he suddenly grabbed his opponents wrist and punched him. Nodoka saw his fist blurring somewhat at the end of the strike and realized he was using the speed training he had received from Shampoo's great grandmother. His opponent collapsed onto the ground unconscious.  
"This sort of thing happens often, does it son?" Nodoka asked.  
"Kinda, though I usually get a little more warning."  
  
Akane stood in the Dojo contemplating the five cinderblocks before her. She adjusted her gi. Stepping up to the stack she paused, then added four more to the group. Preparing herself mentally she centered her breathing, and with practiced skill smashed her fist into the stack. All nine blocks shattered from the force of her blow.  
"Shampoo see Airen safe if attacked by slow moving brick."  
Akane pivoted to the doorway where Shampoo was now standing. "Shampoo. I was just doing a little training while you were on your way."  
"Is Akane ready to start?"  
"Yeah, just..."  
Shampoo crossed the space between her and Akane with one bound. Akane raised her hands and fell back into a defensive stance, but Shampoo simply used one fast kick, which went through Akane's defenses throwing her into the wall. "Akane be ready all time! Not know when attack come!"  
Akane pulled herself to her feet and with a fierce scowl she shifted into a fighting stance. Then with a cry she jumped foreword, lashing out with a punch, which Shampoo leaned away from, then spinning into a kick, which Shampoo jumped over. She launched another punch; this one Shampoo caught with her left hand. Then before Akane could react she lashed out with a simultaneous elbow and knee strike to the trapped right arm.  
"GRRH!" Akane screamed from the pain of her broken arm.  
Shampoo released the limb, which dangled in response. She then struck at Akane with a punch she barely blocked. Her next punch hit Akane in the side sending her crashing into the Dojo wall.  
Akane shook her head to clear it. Looking at Shampoo, she kept her eyes on her as she pushed herself to her feet with her left arm. Seeing Shampoo drop into an aggressive stance, she raised her left arm, shifting her legs into a defensive cat stance. Then she felt the pain in her right arm suddenly surge like the moment it had been broken, she felt it move involuntarily, then she felt the pain fading. She raised her right arm and looked at it, realizing that it had just healed. Her self-contemplation was interrupted by a kick to the sides, cracking three of her ribs and knocking her across the Dojo again.  
"Not Living Girl pay attention!" Shampoo yelled. *Her arm fixed itself! She healed from that demons wound in less than an hour, but I wasn't expecting her arm to heal so fast!* Shampoo thought to herself, keeping all the fear she felt welling inside her from reaching her face. " Akane heal fast now, but still clumsy girl who never had to train hard enough."  
Akane half snarled as she assumed a defensive stance, fists clenched.  
Shampoo smiled and walked toward her. "We fix that, start now."  
  
Kasumi opened the door with a smile as always. "Hello Ukyo, it's good to see you."  
"Is Mrs. Saotome in?" Ukyo responded, as she entered the house and removed her shoes.  
"I'm afraid she and Ranma left on a training mission."  
"Do you know where they went? I was hoping to talk to her about something we discussed last night."  
A fierce battle cry echoed from the Dojo. Kasumi turned her head to look and half whispered, "Oh dear."  
Ukyo blinked and looked at Kasumi. "I thought you said Ranma was gone?"  
"Oh yes, Ranma and Aunt Nodoka left a few hours ago. That's Akane and Shampoo." Kasumi looked at the Dojo with a worried expression.  
Ukyo looked at Kasumi, then looked toward the Dojo. "Sounds rough. Maybe I should..."  
"No, Aunt Nodoka asked Shampoo to help." Akane screamed again, this time there was a distinct gurgle to the sound, as though made from a throat filled by some liquid. Kasumi turned away, vigerously wiping her hands on her apron with while stating, "Akane can't be killed, she can heal any sort of injury, no matter how bloody, messy, painful," Her apron ripped down the middle. She blinked and looked at the remains of the garment. "Oh my, I have to get my spare apron."  
"I have to go, thanks for your time!" Ukyo commented as she turned and walked out of the Tendo House. *I'm not running away, Akane's invulnerable so it doesn't matter how much Shampoo hurts her. It doesn't bother me, not one bit, not one tiny bit! I'm only leaving because Ranma and his mother aren't here.*  
  
Ranma stood in a defensive cat stance, looking ahead with all three eyes. In the clearing before him stood five round posts driven into the ground, four surrounding one in a four foot square. A paper charm was sticking to each of the posts, the outer 4 charms with small bells attached to them.  
"Take your time, son." Nodoka said from behind him. "Precision and control is one of the most important aspects of magic."  
The center post quivered, then began to rise out of the ground. The bells on two of the wards suddenly began ringing.  
"That's OK, I've got a lot more things to show you, we'll get back to this later."  
"NO! This time it'll work!"  
"Ranma!" Nodoka responded with a voice of iron. Ranma looked at his mother. "We'll come back to this."  
"Yes mom."  
  
"Your sure your alright, Akane?" Kasumi asked as she gingerly picked up Akane's gi from the basket. The garment was deeply cut in a dozen places, and splattered with blood. Kasumi tried not to let herself deduce the path of the blades through her sister's body from the cuts, however she knew that almost every wound would have killed a normal person in minutes if not seconds. Akane's body had no scars, her movements showed no signs of pain or injuries. She looked tired, but as Kasumi compared her appearance to the aftermath of vigorous workouts in the past she realized that Akane was much less tired than she should have been.  
"I'm fine Kasumi." Akane responded, opening the door to the bath. Pausing she looked back at her older sister and added, "Thanks."  
  
"Do you know where Nerima is?" Ryouga Hibiki asked the woman standing at the side of the road.  
"EH?" she responded, as she pivoted to look at Ryouga. "Sorry I had something on my mind." She turned to look to the north. "If Nerima's part of Tokyo it's to the north. Where the storm is breaking. You're going the wrong way."  
"Eh?"  
"North is that way." She commented, pointing the way. She lowered her hand, still looking to the horizon. Glancing at Ryouga she saw him start in another wrong direction. "Wait!" she called, walking over toward the wanderer.  
"Um, isn't that the way to Tokyo?" Ryouga responded as he pointed down the road leading to Nagasaki.  
"No. Look, I'm heading that way myself, and I wouldn't mind some company." She glanced toward Tokyo again, narrowing her eyes in consideration. For a moment they glowed.  
  
"That's right, concentrate and don't rush." Nodoka commented as she watched Ranma form a fourth small fireball and add it to the pattern he had circling a boulder.  
Ranma altered the pattern of the fireballs, they wobbled a moment, then entered the new path. Diverting a portion of his concentration Ranma formed fireball number five above his hand. Gesturing slightly he floated it foreword to enter the pattern, then two other fireballs collided and they and the other three vanished with a loud bang.  
"Damn!" Ranma proclaimed as he half-staggered back.  
Nodoka looked at her son, then glanced at the boulder. "This one you can try again."  
  
"Drink your tea, Great-Granddaughter." Cologne commented looking across the table at Shampoo. "And after you tell me about your first lesson, you can bathe as long as you want. I took the liberty of heating the water, anticipating you might have had a hard time with your new pupil."  
Shampoo held her right shoulder while rotating that arm. "Shampoo now believe Japan bath design best ever." She reached down to pick up the tea Cologne had poured for her. After sipping from the cup she added, "Shampoo not expect become teacher before return to village. Also never expect Akane become challenge."  
"She was better than you expected?"  
With a proud smirk Shampoo replied, "Shampoo expect Akane to be good as eight year old Shampoo, she actually good as nine year old Shampoo." Her smirk faded into a look of apprehension. "Shampoo not expect Akane heal like did. Shampoo broke arm, fix self very fast. When used sword, cut and stabbed a little before used fast kill strikes." She shuddered to herself. "However hurt, heal very short time."  
Cologne sighed and looked at Shampoo. "You don't like doing this, do you?"  
Shampoo blinked. "Shampoo have not sure feelings teach obstacle..."  
"I mean you didn't like striking the killing blows. Don't lie to me Shampoo. I was the one who spanked you right before telling you mother she had a daughter." Cologne sighed and leaned back, closing her eyes. "I was about a year younger than you, and while on village business in a nearby province, bandits attacked me." She pulled a small clipboard and a pencil from her robes and started drawing something. "I was good enough with my staff to easily knock out most of them, however the leader was an expert swordsman. I had taken three wounds, two severe, before he presented me an opening, and I struck with all my strength and snapped his neck like a twig." She turned and held up the clipboard, showing the detailed sketch of a mans face. "I can still tell you every detail of every crime he committed, learning them was how I justified myself." She looked at Shampoo, who was regarding her intensely. "I expected to have to tell you that story much sooner. As the future leader of the Joketsuzok you will have to deal with that pain. I and every other elder wish it were otherwise."  
"Great... Great-Grandmother, how many peoples you kill?"  
Cologne looked at Shampoo, then looked away. With a sigh she replied, "I lost count. After ten, everything starts to blur."  
  
"Well, your not doing too badly half-breed." Vishnaru commented to Ranma. "Espceially considering that you have so little background knowlege."  
"Mom mentioned that."  
"She doesn't know about me though. You're doing a decent job of holding back on what you've learned from me, but you'll still need to be carefull not to show her too much 'intuition'."  
"I know. At least those control and precision drills are new."  
"Well I can't really show you the limits of your body in a dream, can I? I can however show you the nature of magic, and make sure you learn it properly. Now name the seven principals!"  
"Um, there's synthonic and contagiousness..."  
"Sympathy! And contagion! Do you at least remember what they mean?"  
"Well, that when two things are part of each other they tend to stay linked even after you break them apart, and what you do to one can be made to mimic what the other does."  
"You defined them backward, but you seem to have a rough idea." She said with a sigh. "Ultimately understanding will be more useful than knowing the definitions. That doesn't mean understaning the proper terminology is useless, though." She sighed and nodded to herself. "Ok, watch closely, this one you wouln't be able to get the first time."  
"Let's see about that." Ranma responded, focusing his attention on Vishnaru's demonstrated technique.  
  
"Is this everything you've got?" Ukyo commented as she looked over the two leather bound tomes on the counter in front of her.  
Hikaru Gosenkugi nervously responded, "It's not like I do very much with magic. I mean except for the occasional voodoo doll and that's never really done anything."  
"Relax, it's just that outside Colougne you're the only source of magic information I know about. But are you sure that those pages in these two books are the only mention you've got about Sanjiyan Unkara?"  
"Well, their mentioned occasionally, it's just these are the only books that actually say anything about them."  
Ukyo opened the first tome to where it was marked with a red ribbon. Skiming the pages she turned four pages to the second ribbon Looking at the second book, she opened it to the marked pages and counted them as well. "Five. So there's nine pages altogether." Closing and stacking the volumes she smiled at Gosenkugi. "It's not much but it's more than I had. Thanks." *Hm, with Ranma training with his mom, maybe I can get Akane to go out with him, something romantic... No. Geting her away from Ranma means fixing this Sanjiyan-Wu thing. Break that link with her, hook it up to me, and Akane can marry Happosei for all I care.*  
  
{The powers of the Wu sound impressive indeed,} Nephredana's voice said in Colougne's mind, {But it is a shame the infant Sanjiyan has wandered off, so much can be learned from seeing the foundations of a Magic wielder's training.}  
"I don't know where Ranma and his mother are training, and if I leave the Nekohanten to search, I'm making it that much harder to keep a safe distance.  
{Of course, the foundation of successfull spying is to avoid being discovered.}  
"Yes... How likely is it that Ranma will learn something that will make it harder for me to observe him unseen?"  
{I have no way of knowing. There are always ways to extend the perceptions, and ways to hide. It may be that nothing Ranma learns will let him see past the skills you possess, or you may have to negotiate with me for the means to approach him through stealth.}  
Colougne frowned. Demon's could offer incredible gifts of power, if one was willing to deal with them. And they tended to deal so fairly, so cheaply at first. Nephredana didn't offer her powers often, but when she did, Colougne always pushed away the temptation of such potent capabilities. "I will keep your offer in mind." *If there's absolutely no alternative,* she thought. In her head she already began prepairing for the possibility of negotiating with Nephredana for something more than information and advice. She had never heard of anyone who failed to eventually be destroyed by such dealing, but in the decades she had been in contact with Nephredana the demoness had never shown very much bargining ability.  



	4. Chapter 4(Still in Progress)

Legal: The characters of Ranma ½ were created by the great Rumiko Takahashi.  
I am using them without permission, hopefully for the purpose of entertaining someone. If anyone who has a right to sue me has that desire, I have almost no money.  
C&C is appreciated, you can contact me at brendan@wiltonnewyork.com. And if you want to see the earlier parts of this and my other stories, you can find them at http://www.wiltonnewyork.com/Brendan  
--------  
  
Ranma three and a half eyes  
Chapter 4  
by Brendan O'Donnell  
  
  
Ranma stood in a clearing surrounded by eight ward covered boulders. Only his third eye was open. He gestured and a bolder began to rise in the air. Shifting his hand slightly, he caused the other bolders to rise level with the first. They began to slowly move in a circle around him. He turned his head, focused his third eye, and the wards on one bolder burst into flame. Then another set of wards, then two more sets, and then all the rest. Ranma droped his hands and the bolders fell back to the ground. He turned and looked at his mother who was contemplating another ward covered bolder.  
"Good, you defeated those spells without triggering this one." Nodoka said with a smile. "I have to admit that I didn't expect you to improve this fast. Your father hasn't tried to teach you any magic before this has he?" Her smile changed into a frown.  
"Untill I went to Jusenkyo I wasn't sure there was such a thing as magic."  
"Good. He did promise me that." She looked off in the direction of Nerima. "You're still nowhere near mastering your full abilities, but you've learned what I can teach you as I am now. We just have to hope that you'll be able to teach yourself enough to be ready for what's coming."  
"What is coming?"  
"I wish I knew."  
  
Genma shifted the strap of his backpack and raised one hand to shade his eyes as he contemplated the two mountain peaks with the sun shining between them. "Yeah, it's up there." He shook his head and sighed.  
  
"The Tendo Dojo. Right where you wanted to be right?"  
"Thanks. Not that I couldn't have found it on my own of course."  
"Uh huh," The woman responded, her eyes half closed.  
There was a loud, slightly wrong sounding scream from the Dojo behind the house.  
"Akane!" Ryouga jumped over the wall and landed in the Tendo Yard. He ran into the Dojo, smashing the door to splinters rather than slow to open it. As he entered he froze.  
  
Akane was at the back of the Dojo, her torn Gi liberally soaked in the blood that was pouring from the many cuts he could see. In front of her stood Shampoo, both hands on the hilt of the two edged longsword that was struck through Akane's chest to pin her to the wall like an insect in a collection.  
  
"AAAAAAARRRRRR!!!!!!" Ryouga screamed as he charged at Shampoo.  
Shampoo turned just in time to raise her hands against a punch that was practically burning from the power it contained. Drawing on every lesson she dispersed it's force through her, leting it's power be expended throwing her against the wall, and into the wall shatering the boards into dust. She pulled herself to her feet, then jumped away from Ryouga's followup attack. "Lost boy stop! Shampoo no hurt Akane!"  
Ryouga growled in response, and continued his attack.  
*Not good!* Shampoo thought as she dodged for all she was worth.   
  
Akane blinked and looked around the Dojo. "Ryo. . ." she stopped, needing to cough up a mouthfull of blood. Glancing down at Shampoo's sword, she raised one hand to grab hold of it by the blade just in front of where it entered her body. With a slight grunt she pushed herself foreward, pulling the rest of the sword out of the wall.  
Looking back at the fight, she saw Shampoo almost stumble on a section of the floor that had been shattered by one of Ryouga's earlier punches. The momentary distraction enabled Ryouga to connect with a jab which grazed Shampoo's right shoulder knocking her the ground rolling to the side of the Dojo. Ryouga leaped in pursuit.  
Rushing foreward, Akane grabed Ryouga's arm as he drew it back for a descending stike. "Ryouga Stop!" She yelled, ignoring the sloshing sensation at the back of her throat.  
Ryouga spun, fists raised, his face burning with Rage. "DON'T INTERFERE! She. . ." Ryouga froze, looking at Akane.  
"I'm fine," Akane started, then paused to cough. Glancing at the blood she had just coughed up, she looked down at the sword still stuck through her chest. "Just a second," She mutttered, grabing the sword by the blade and pushing it foreward eight inches. She shifted her grip and pulled once again, this time pulling the entire blade out of her. "Don't worry Ryouga, I'll be fine in a few minuites."  
Ryouga looked at her.  
Akane frowned, looking at Ryouga. She raised a hand to wave in front of his face, with no response. Loosly clenching her hand, she turned it to gently knock on Ryouga's forehead. "Ryouga?"  
Ryouga's eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed onto the floor.  
"Ouch, lost boy hit hard," Shampoo commented as she walked over to Akane, her left hand gently probing her shoulder. "Grazing strike not break bone but came close."  
"Considering how it looked I think I understand," Akane commented, the watery quality fading from it as the blood drained from her increasingly restored lungs.  
Shampoo looked at Akane. With a cry she moved foreward, slamming a fast elbow strike into the rapidly shrinking wound in Akane's chest. Akane staggered backward three steps into a defensive stance, and raised her hands. "Are you sure you want to continue?"  
Shampoo grinned. "Not-living not only ones who need fight when hurt."  
  
Kasumi looked at the woman standing outside her door. "Yes, Ms?"  
"Oh, I'm sorry, I was trying to help someone I met on the road find this place. It just doesn't feel right leaving before I know that I haven't lead him the wrong way."  
Kasumi glanced past her into the empty street.  
"Oh, he just jumped over the wall. About yea high, black hair, yellow and black bandana."  
"Oh, it's Ranma's friend Ryouga." She glanced back into the house. "Their probably still busy in the Dojo, would you like to come in and wait? I can brew up some tea for you."  
"Tea should wonderful! If it's not to much trouble to you."  
"Oh no trouble at all." Kasume replied, grateful for the distraction.  
  
Daikoji knelt on the trail along the side of the mountain. He was a tall figure, dressed in a typical black Ninja Dogi. His head was uncovered however, allowing his coarse red hair to fall just short of blocking his black eyes  
Looking into the forest beneath, he saw two figures. He scowled as he saw the magic flowing through and around the pair. "Can it really be coincidence?" He asked himself quietly. "and do I have time to report back to the elders." He raised one hand, and looked at it, concentrating. The skin rippled, colors fading into a deep black as the digits lengthened and thinned, becoming a quintet of knives. With a shake of his head he let the transformation lapse.  
"The Clan is mother, the Clan is father." He muttered to himself. As a Ninja his duty was much more important than his own life. But at the same time, he knew his importance to the clans future.  
Since time immemorable his clan had been the true rulers of the Mountains. Through ancient pacts they had mingled their bloodlines with those of the demon clans, and become stronger than any of the lesser clans who lived nearby through their sufferance. But over the years the bloodline had become thinner, with a recent influx of humanity nearly blotting out the demon blood. So the clan leaders had revived the ancient pacts, and given twenty women to the demons as a sacrifice. Three had been returned, so that they could die giving birth to Daikoji and his siblings.  
"There's me, my brother and sister, and the other five half demons." He thought to himself. "And the coming meeting is too important to be jepordised by unknown powers in the valley below. I have to at least act with knowledge." He quickly wrapped his head leaving just his eyes uncovered. Then he paused to center his breathing. The black cloth suddenly shimmered to blend with the cliff behind him. It continued to blend with it's surroundings, as Daikoji leaped into the dense undergrowth, landing silently and moving quickly into the valley. There was no sign of his passage.  
  
Ukyo stood behind her griddle, cooking a seven different okonimiyaki with the the smooth precise motions developed over ten years of constant practice. *The Sanjiyan posses the power to take the soul of one human during it's life. The Human who's soul is taken becomes one of the undead, no longer any part of the cycle of life and death, untill the Sanjiyan dies, and the soul is freed.* She forced herself from scowling at her customers.  
"Here you go!" She said as she casually flipped the perfectly prepaired okonimiyaki onto the waiting plates.  
*There has to be something more.* She could remember everything the books said about the Sanjiyan Uncara word for word. Not that there were very many words to remember. *And visiting the library simply confirmed that Gosunkugi has the best supply of books besides Colougne.* For a moment she saw herself sneaking into the Nekohanten. *I'm good, but I'm not that good.* She thought shaking her head. *What to do. . .*  
  
Ranma looked around him. The forest looked the same.  
"Is something wrong?"  
"I'm not sure." For a moment he thought of looking with his third eye. Then he frowned and peered harder, reaching inside himself, feeling for the power of his magic. The plants and animals glowed in his sight, as paterns of mystical force became visible. The magic of any plant or animal was insignificant, but it was constantly in motion, trying to change the curve of their fate. Mystic spark fought mystic spark, forming a great chaotic see of power. Except in one spot surrounded by a bubble of highly ordered magic. Frowning Ranma looked more carefully at it. Suddenly he understood the pattern of magic surrounding the area. Coming from the black clad figure standing there.  
The black clad figure who's eyes locked with his a moment. Then he leaped into the trees, throwing three knives at Ranma as he rose.  
Leaping backward above the knives, Ranma landed in a defensive stance. Behind him his mother drew her sword and waited.  
"What is it?" Nodoka said quietly.  
"Was using magic to hide. Dressed like someone out of a cheap ninja movie."  



End file.
